Ontario finds tens of thousands of fish washed up

September 13, 2012

Residents who border Lake Erie in Ontario, Canada, were certainly bewildered when they smelled something so pungent and then found tens of thousands of dead fish washed up on shore, according to NBC News.

Officials are still unsure why all of these fish were found dead, but they are suspecting it has something to do with a lack of oxygen caused by lake sediment being stirred up, the media outlet reports.

A few days prior, residents started to complain about a smell. Park visitor Frank van den Boorn explained he noticed the darker water and knew something was not right.

"I said to the kids 'We've got to get out of here, there is something wrong with the water,'" Van den Boorn told the news source. "I scooped up a handful of water and ... you could still smell the body stench on it. I just couldn't believe people were letting their kids swim in it."

The Ministry of Environment (MOE) collected fish and water to start their elimination process and quickly ruled out pollution or spills at the cause, the Windsor Star reports. Officials have yet to determine what is to blame.

"Certainly all the field measurements that our staff did on the weekend as well as observations that they made didn't point to or indicate any source of spill or man-made pollution," MOE spokeswoman Kate Jordan told the news source.